I brought it up because it was the proper place to bring it up. You mentioned respect for hunters, and I voiced my POV on how that respect can be earned.

Very few hunters properly acknowledge good behavior of other hunters - especially new hunters or younger hunters. When those 'few bad apples' do their misdeeds, a hunter may apologize to those who were unfortunately on the receiving end. However, very few hunters will address the bad apples, their actions and suggest they apologize to those they did not treat properly. Like I stated in my prior post, as hunters we need to police our own. If the few bad apples are not handled properly, we will have more bad apples. Also, when someone looks at a barrel of apples, it is the bad apples that are noticed.

Truthfully, a lot of hunters will do what appears to be the right thing if there may be something in it for them (future hunting access, good image, etc.). There are also those hunters who do the right thing just because it is the right thing to do, and this is what hunters need to teach and encourage. We need to teach and stress to hunters that we do the right thing because it is the right thing to do - not so we might get some benefit out of it at a later date. I see advice on a lot of hunting forums suggesting to do good deeds in hopes of getting hunting access. There are much fewer posts of truly caring about your fellow men and women.

Personally, I believe you should have taken the higher road with the rancher; and I was appalled that others on this forum cheered you on for giving him the riot act. Taking the higher road would have served you and fellow hunters much better. In this thread, it appears you continue to look at the actions of the rancher to justify your actions which did not serve hunters very well. I also believe you know that is true, and it is why you don't plan on going back there this season. Hunters are human - we make mistakes. We also need to man up (which others have suggested) and make amends when we make mistakes.

The above is just my POV and $0.02 worth from a fellow hunter whose family owns hunting property. I don't currently live near this property, so I hunt on private land owned by friends. They became friends long before I hunted on their property, and I was asked by them if I would be interested in hunting on their property.